HOWTO: Automating Gnome with Devil's Pie

[Wolki]

I've been working on another (still secret ) project and didn't work a lot on thiis howto... I've had to look into the new s-expr things though, and could probably write a quick intro/reference. Now that the new versions are in dapper, i can actually test things it'll take a few days though, henrique.

jason, I wouldn't call examples off-topic, so you could've posted them here. A new thread is fine too, please post a link here once it's available.

and thanks, manicka!

[jrib]

jason, I wouldn't call examples off-topic, so you could've posted them here. A new thread is fine too, please post a link here once it's available.

You're right, it's ontopic but it may get a bit confusing if we discuss two different formats in the same thread. I'll definitely link once it's approved. Any idea on how long it usually takes for a thread to be approved?

[henriquemaia]

You're right, it's ontopic but it may get a bit confusing if we discuss two different formats in the same thread. I'll definitely link once it's approved. Any idea on how long it usually takes for a thread to be approved?

looking forward to this new thread

I really really want to tame some wild windows on my desktop

[sup]

thanks for the great howto. I have one question - is it possible to add commnets to the config file? I tried

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE devilspie SYSTEM "devilspie.dtd">
<devilspie>
#comment
<flurb>
blahblah
</flurb>
</devilspie>

but when run in terminal, it gave out this:
** (devilspie:12981): WARNING **: Could not parse configuration: Line 6 character 2: No text is allowed inside element <2>

[Wolki]

I have one question - is it possible to add commnets to the config file?

Yes. Do it like this:

<!-- This is a comment -->

[edit] I've added an appendix with a beta explanation of devilspie >=0.13.

[jrib]

jason, I wouldn't call examples off-topic, so you could've posted them here. A new thread is fine too, please post a link here once it's available.

Anyone interested in S-expression examples for the latest versions of devilspie can post their own examples and read other users' at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=98071.

[Kasanax]

Excellent walkthrough - after a few failed attempts at using DevilsPie, I finally got it up and running!

I am having a problem though... I'm trying to get gnome-terminal to open full screen. This is the text of my .devilspie.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE devilspie SYSTEM "devilspie.dtd">
<devilspie>
  <flurb>
    <matchers>
      <matcher name="DevilsPieMatcherWindowName">
        <property name="application_name" value="gnome-terminal"/>
      </matcher>
    </matchers>
    <actions>
      <action name="DevilsPieActionResize">
        <property name="fullscreen" value="True"/>
      </action>
    </actions>
  </flurb>
  <flurb>
    <matchers>
      <matcher name="DevilsPieMatcherWindowName">
        <property name="application_name" value="gaim"/>
        <property name="window_role" value="conversation"/>
      </matcher>
    </matchers>
    <actions>
      <action name="DevilsPieActionSetWorkspace">
        <property name="pinned" value="TRUE"/>
      </action>
    </actions>
  </flurb>
</devilspie>

The other flurb, the one for Gaim, works fine. Am I doing something wrong with the application name?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Wolki]

The other flurb, the one for Gaim, works fine. Am I doing something wrong with the application name?

Gnome-terminal doesn't have "gnome-terminal" as application name; it depends on the program you're running, or the directory you're in. You need to match against window_role, which should contain "gnome-terminal" and a large number of apparently random numbers. So, just changing "application_name" to "window_role" in the flurb should make it work, I guess.

[souled]

You can also try wildcards. When dynamically set titles are enabled for the terminal, the directory is displayed in the terminal title. It starts with your username and @ (i.e. my terminal starts with eric@). You could put your username with the @ and then * I think it is for wildcards (not exactly sure... the s-expressions use .+ for wildcards I think...) Another way is to disable dynamically set titles, and you can set the title to whatever you want. Then you can use the application_name function and set the value to whatever you named the terminal. I'm pretty sure these methods work... Haven't messed around with devil's pie and the terminal in awhile because I have my config file exactly how I want it . Just mess around with it, and you'll get it eventually; trial and error.

[Kasanax]

Alrighty, I've tried playing around with my .devilspie.xml file a lot, and I still can't get this figured out...

I'm still trying to get gnome-terminal to run in full screen all the time. I took Wolki's advice, and tried putting in "window_role" as the propery name, then I tried both "gnome-terminal" and "gnome-terminal*" as the values for the property in the <matchers> part of the flub... neither one seemed to work.

Then, I tried matching the flub to the window title. So, I tried this:

<flurb>
    <matchers>
      <matcher name="DevilsPieMatcherWindowName">
        <property name="window_title" value="mike@ubuntu: ~"/>
      </matcher>
    </matchers>
    <actions>
      <action name="DevilsPieActionResize">
        <property name="fullscreen" value="True"/>
      </action>
    </actions>
  </flurb>

Since, "mike@ubuntu: ~" is the full title of the window. I also tried "mike@*", "mike@", and "mike@ubuntu*"

I'm sure there's something really simple I'm messing up here... any ideas?